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The end goal is to have Fuchsia on phones, computers, smart speakers, and more.

Ever since 2016, Google’s been chugging along with the development of a new operating system called “Fuchsia.” Fuchsia’s been expected to replace Android at some point down the road, but the timeline for this has been pretty murky — at least until now.

A new report recently popped up from Bloomberg, and according to sources that spoke with the publication:

Ultimately the team [Google’s Fuchsia team] aspires to swap in their system for Android, the software that powers more than three-quarters of the world’s smartphones, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The aim for this is to happen in the next half decade, one person said.

Furthermore, Google also plans to have Fuchsia running on smart speakers and other “connected home devices” within the next three years.

Bloomberg’s report goes on to reiterate things we’ve already been anticipating for Fuchsia, most notably how Google wants it to eventually be the single operating system that powers smartphones, tablets, computers, smart home devices, etc. The OS is being designed to work on screens of all sizes and form factors, and to not much surprise, Google wants voice control to be at the core of Fuchsia.

It’s certainly exciting to think that we may have a brand new operating system from Google in five years time, but as it’s noted here, Google’s “yet to sign off on any roadmap for Fuchsia.”

Lenovo and Google teamed up to create the Smart Display, a smart home hub with a screen that takes direct aim at the $230 Amazon Echo Show.
The Smart Display comes in two sizes — 8″ for $200 and 10″ for $250 — and has an HD screen, two speakers, and a modern design that doesn’t scream “tech.”
Lenovo’s hardware and Google’s Assistant are a perfect match.
The Smart Display has a Google Chromecast built into it too, so you can watch videos or listen to music from dozens of services using apps on your smartphone or tablet.
The Smart Display is easily the best smart home hub I’ve tested — I’m a long-time Amazon Echo fan, but I’m considering a switch to Google’s side.

The Google team rolled up their sleeves and moved into action to design and launch catapults. Eyeing the competition, strategies shifted while teams worked against the clock. The key to success – testing! Teams competed for distance and accuracy….

The hybrid web-app solution, progressive web app, is touted as the possible solution to Microsoft’s app gap; but it may do more good for Google than for Microsoft.

Google and Microsoft are fierce competitors in AI, productivity tools, search and more. Additionally, Google’s refusal to bring its first-party apps to Windows phone was a strategic blow that contributed to the platform’s poor adoption.

Given this troubled history and present rivalry, it’s ironic that Microsoft’s Jeffrey Burtoft, principal program manager for partner app experiences, reached out to Google to forge a partnership in developing progressive web app (PWA) standards. Google had introduced service workers or scripts that run in the background, into its web-app solution that reduced the system’s resource usage, allowing PWAs to work efficiently. Microsoft was intrigued by Google’s approach which seemed superior to its own Universal Windows web-app strategy.

Microsoft had been investing in a Universal Windows web-app bridge called Westminster, which it merged with Google’s PWA solution after the two joined forces. Though this partnership is seemingly the best chance Microsoft has to close the app gap, it may profit Google even more.

Microsoft needs PWAs, Centennial apps and the whole of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to succeed. Ironically, the company’s historic lack of support for its ecosystem is counterintuitive to the resources it possesses and the dire state in which that ecosystem has languished. Microsoft’s reaching out to Google for a partnership likely reflected a sense of desperation for a strategy that it realizes is a “Catch 22” that would benefit its own ecosystem while enhancing Android’s and Chrome’s growing threat to Windows.

PWAs could help Microsoft populate the Microsoft Store with a plethora of apps. Granted, some app categories don’t translate well to PWAs, and PWAs may not have the quality or features of dedicated apps. Still, if the strategy is successful, PWAs would greatly benefit cellular PCs, Microsoft’s Surface Go LTE category (and OEM devices it inspires) and Microsoft’s rumored Project Andromeda pocket PC category.

As Microsoft pushes Always Connected PCs (ACPCs), it is forced to highlight their laptop productivity aspects since the touch-centric mobile platform (even for 2-in-1s with detachable keyboards) is weak. Surface Go has the same weakness. PWAs provide hope that the whole of the Windows 10 ecosystem would benefit from them, particularly since Windows 10 treats them as native universal apps. Such an outcome would make Microsoft’s connected Windows PCs, particularly small mobile-focused devices like Surface Go or Surface Andromeda, more relevant.

Google’s PWA play

Android is the most used mobile platform in a mobile-centric personal computing world. PWAs would benefit Google by reducing a user’s need to download apps that consume device space and are frequently ignored once downloaded.

Furthermore, the mobile web and search are still highly frequented to accomplish tasks despite app stores boasting millions of apps. PWAs, which combine websites with the UI and other benefits of dedicated apps, optimize on this web-centric user behavior. Google’s search and A.I. fortés could help it make PWAs in the Android and Chrome ecosystem a quick, seamless and rich experience.

Additionally, if PWAs become a “standard” computing experience, Chromebook efficiency and appeal could be boosted. Though not as popular outside of the U.S. education sector, Chromebooks are a growing segment. PWAs as part of Chrome make those devices even more practical.

Microsoft is reportedly delaying Surface Andromeda to refine the OS and bolster the Windows ecosystem with PWAs. Though PWAs may be Microsoft’s best chance to close the app gap, they’re also Google’s tool to make Chromebooks more relevant and Android and Chrome more powerful.

Google’s explanation of how Android is open isn’t passing the smell test anymore.

The European Union just told Google it has 90 days to pay €4.34 billion ($5.06 billion) for violating its antitrust rules, claiming the company has been forcing manufacturers to bundle Google Search, Chrome, and the Play Store as a bundle in phones that ship with Android. Since most people use the apps that are included on the phone, this move supposedly encourages people to use Google products without ever trying anything else. Google is appealing the ruling, claiming Android gives people more choice and creates a firm ground for developers to build for the largest possible audience. While there’s undoubtedly going to be some conversation in the coming weeks over what that appeal is going to look like, it’s clear Google’s explanations for how Android functions openly is no longer enough, and things are probably going to have to change.

And, if you ask me, that sucks.

How we got here

In the early days of Android, Google let manufacturers put basically whatever they wanted on the phone as long as some minimum system requirements were met for the Android Market. And manufacturers did, in fact, install whatever they wanted. We had phones launch in the U.S. with over 100 pre-loaded apps; phones launch with Bing as the default search engine; and so many other generally terrible and user-hostile offerings to please the companies funding the launch — mainly carriers and manufacturers. These phones were terrible, and remained terrible when they didn’t get a single software update. It was a bad time, and made recommending anything that didn’t have the Nexus branding on the side pretty difficult.

Around 2013, Google stepped up and added restrictions to its Google Mobile Services agreements. Those restrictions included what could be placed on the home screen someone sees when the phone first starts, how many apps could be pre-installed, and a bunch of other very specific details. These agreements are all private between Google and its partners, but every once in a while details are made public for these agreements. Basically, as long as the manufacturer follows those rules it gets access to Google’s Play Services and suite of apps like Chrome, Search, YouTube, Maps, and so on.

This is where things get a little iffy. Several versions of this agreement have required Google apps to be front and center on that initial home screen. Google’s Search bar needed to be there, and folders with Google’s apps needed to be there. And if you look at any new Android phone today, that initial home screen is pretty much identical across the ecosystem. Google’s placement is prominent, specific, and consistent across the Android landscape right now — as long as that phone ships with the Play Store.

What the EU sees as wrong

The claim against Google right now is that, in forcing manufacturers to put these three apps front and center, it strong-arms its partners, prevents suppresses competition, and keeps people from looking at other options. Specifically, the EU says including Google Search, Chrome, and the Google Play Store as mandatory apps in the Google Mobile Services bundle is wrong. Many analysts have likened Android today to how Windows looked before Microsoft lost its own antitrust cases in the mid-90’s. If people don’t know there are other choices, they won’t go looking for them. There are a few problems with this comparison, but the overall claim is Google has forced people to use its apps and is reaping the benefits of that enforcement.

Android is only as good as it is now because of the Google Play Store.

Google’s response makes a lot of sense. Anyone can uninstall or disable the pre-loaded apps and replace them with different apps from any developer. Many manufacturers make their own versions of Google’s apps and install them right alongside Google’s. And if manufacturers want Android itself to come with no strings attached, manufacturers don’t need to use the Play Store. Android is free code that anyone can fork or alter, as Amazon has been doing for years. But the Google Play Store and its related apps do have some big rules to follow. That distinction has never really been clear to the public, because while Google wants people to know Android is open it also wants people to know Google and Android are one and the same.

There’s a lot about this EU ruling which is troubling. First, the EU seems to only care about three of the eleven apps Google is including in its bundle. There’s no call to strip Google Maps, for example, only Search, Chrome and the Play Store. Second, this decision fundamentally misunderstands how deeply integrated into one another these systems are and seems to intentionally observe them as standalone apps. Android is only as good as it is now because of the Google Play Store and Play Services. Through this, Google enforces security across the platform and wraps up a majority of the new features you hear about when a new version is announced. Android without Google services isn’t just Android without apps, it’s an entirely different and significantly less functional experience.

The appeal being made by Google is essentially claiming the environment it created within Android allows for more choice instead of less. Developers can build for a single platform and get a consistent experience across thousands of different devices, which manufacturers can give users access to by following Google’s rules. With all of these manufacturers competing on such even software footing, the hardware-based feature fight has caused the price of hardware to go down which Google says is also good everyone. By creating a single platform for all of these manufacturers to compete against Apple, Google claims its decisions have been a net positive.

The future might suck a lot if Google loses

When Microsoft was slapped with antitrust fines, it reacted by removing Internet Explorer entirely and giving users multiple browsers to choose from. The company later backed down from this and went back to including its own browser but making it very easy to install others, but the overall decision did not make Internet Explorer more or less popular. That browser already had lots of problems and even more competition, and without pointing fingers at other popular mobile platforms it is a nontrivial detail that Google allows you to set any app as the default, such as the browser.

Chrome, inside Android, encourages a lot of choice for users.

Android is overall a little different from Windows anyway. The mobile platform tightly integrates a lot of things, and Chrome is much more than just an app. Micro versions of Chrome exist in many Android apps, because developers recognized this mini Chrome was much more stable and functional than building their own in-app browser. Chrome is the underpinning for things like Android Instant Apps, which directly encourages developers to build tools that make it easier for users to try new apps and move away from the installed default. Chrome, inside Android, encourages a lot of choice for users. Taking that away will absolutely make Android users less likely to try new things and just stick with what is installed.

Assistant is another thing that will suffer if this decision forces Google to disconnect its apps from the central nervous system of Android. Access to Google’s knowledge graph is what makes Assistant so powerful, and Search is arguably the most important part of that. Bing is never going to integrate into Google Assistant to provide results, even if those results were worth using. There’s no arguing Assistant is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition right now because of its ability to deeply yet safely integrate into the lives of its users, and removing that key component could take a very long time to functionally work around.

Google has been building toward this grand unified experience for a while now, and a lot of that work will take several steps back as a result of this decision if it is enforced. Here’s hoping the appeal yields positive results.

The EU’s competition watchdog fined Google €4.3 billion ($5 billion) last week for abusing the dominance of its mobile operating system, Android.
Google secretly tried to settle with the European Commission a year before the fine was imposed, Bloomberg reports.
Google lawyers reportedly started talking to EU counterparts about settling the Android probe in June 2017, after Google had been fined for its shopping service.

Google secretly tried to settle with the EU over its investigation into the Android operating system, Bloomberg reports.

In reality, the building was actually darker than in this photo — the Pixel 2’s high-dynamic range (HDR) function pulled a wider range of lighting than my own eye was capable of seeing. It also managed to dim the incredibly bright street light and capture the movement of a car speeding past.

And this was all during sunset, when natural lighting conditions are at their worst.

I’ve been using the Pixel 2 for months now, but spending the last two weeks traveling throughout Israel with Google’s flagship phone highlighted to me just how incredibly impressive the Pixel 2’s camera is. Let’s get into it.

I cook a lot. I eat a lot. I care deeply about taking pretty photos of food — probably more than I should. And the Pixel 2 makes it incredibly easy to take gorgeous photos of food.

Just look at the shots of falafel from famed Tel Aviv spot Hakosem. I was already freaking out because I was handed free, fresh falafel to eat while standing in line to order — and seeing that my phone camera was able to capture the crispy, dark exterior and the creamy, spice-flecked, bright green interior of said falafel was a tremendous bonus.

That stunning level of detail applies to most lighting conditions.Ben Gilbert/Business Insider

I shot this photo from within a dark, unlit ruin — Masada, the over 2,000 year old fortress left by King Herod the Great. Outside of the ruin, around 7 in the morning, the desert sun had just begun filling the valley.

Yet, remarkably, this photo captures the stunning detail of the rocks inside as well as the mountains (and Dead Sea) in the distance. I didn’t doctor the brightness settings; this is a completely untouched photo.

If anything, the quality is slightly lower than the original photo — I’m slightly dropping the quality from the originals here to make the files smaller (so this article doesn’t take forever to load). And the photos still look this good!

The range of colors, while still retaining remarkable levels of detail, is incredibly impressive.Ben Gilbert/Business Insider

I came away from photos like this marveling at the Pixel 2’s ability.

Smartphone cameras aren’t ususally able to capture remarkable views like the one above. What often happens is you see an incredible view, attempt to capture it in a photo, and fail miserably. It crops a section, or the lighting is all wrong, or whatever else — the essence of the gorgeous view is lost in translation from reality to digital.

In the case of the Pixel 2 camera, even without taking a panorama shot (which you can do!), photographs of landscapes like the one above are remarkable. The subtle bokeh effect in the foreground, the depth of lighting in the rocks on the left side, and the hazy beauty of the background — to say nothing of the fuzzy, luminous sun and its reflection on the Dead Sea — was all done automatically.